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Davy Crockett's Death

Before the war ended, Santa Anna ordered that a red flag be raised from San Fernando cathedral indicating to the defenders that no quarter would be given. According to the controversial José Enrique de la Peña diary, several of those not killed in the final assault were captured by Colonel Manuel Fernández Castrillón and presented to Santa Anna, who personally ordered their executions. It is speculated that Davy Crockett was one of the six prisoners. De la Peña also states that Crockett attempted to negotiate a surrender with Santa Anna but was turned down on the grounds of 'no guarantees for traitors'. However, there is little evidence to support this.

Still, some people believe that Davy Crockett was killed by Santa Anna's men after the 12 day struggle. A contemporary history summarizes the battle thus: "They fought all one bloody night, until he [Travis] fell with all the garrison but seven;--and they were slain, while crying for quarter!" This history, while not providing proof that Crockett was among those who survived the assault, does corroborate de la Peña's diary entry. However, two eyewitness survivors attested that Crockett did die in the battle. Susanna Dickinson, the wife of an officer, said that Crockett was killed in the assault and that she saw his body between the long barracks and the chapel, and Travis' slave Joe said that he also saw Crockett lying dead with the bodies of slain Mexican soldiers around him.

Congressman Crockett

In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation. At first the court seemed to rule against the Indians. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court refused to hear a case extending Georgia's laws on the Cherokee because they did not represent a sovereign nation. In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the same issue in Worcester v. Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The treaty then would have to be ratified by the Senate.

Crockett's Last Stand

The traditional story holds that Crockett, the former congressman from Tennessee, fought to the end, wielding his long-rifle, "Betsy," like a club before he fell near the front doors of the Alamo's chapel.

Two unidentified Texans paid nearly $390,000 for a diary that challenges one of the most popular legends in their state's history: that Davy Crockett proudly fought Mexican troops to the bitter end of the 13-day siege at the Alamo.

The 200-page manuscript, purchased at an auction Wednesday in Hollywood, is supposedly a Mexican army officer's eyewitness account of Crockett's death on March 6, 1836.

Musso acknowledged there are many who would refuse to believe that Crockett did not go down fighting. He said he is not one of them.

Don Carleton, director of the Center for American History at the University of Texas, said Texans associate the Alamo with a great sense of patriotic pride, so many would be offended at the thought of Crockett surrendering.

"If the document is real, I don't think it should change people's perceptions of Davy Crockett. Whether he died swinging his rifle ... or whether he was brought before Santa Anna" should not matter, Musso said.

Fact or Fiction on Davy's Death

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The first and probably most important question is how did Davy Crocket really die and is the fictionalized account of his death really accurate? Some historians believe that Crocket did not die in the heat of battle as immortalized by the Duke. Instead, it is surmised that Davy and several other survivors located in the ruins of the Alamo were given no quarter and executed on the spot.

In an attempt to answer this question, investigators have turned to the available Mexican records that chronicled the "victors" version of what happened after the battle. Translated documents written by José Enrique de la Pena, an aide to Santa Anna, indicate that Crocket, always the politician, attempted to talk his way out of his dire predicament. Claiming that he was a citizen of the United States, Crocket spun a yarn saying that he had sought refuge in the Alamo rather than have his "Foreigner" status called into question by any Mexican forces that he may have encountered while coincidently exploring the countryside in and around the old mission. Apparently the triumphant Santa Anna was unimpressed with Davy's silver tongue and he ordered Crocket and 6 other survivors be put death. The horrified De la Pena writes that upon Santa Anna's command, several Mexican officers, "fell upon these unfortunate, defenseless men just as a tiger leaps upon his prey."

Even thought this version of Crockets death raises the hackles of Alamo revisionist's everywhere, the fact remains that the surrender of Crocket and his subsequent execution was reported by several highly respected newspapers of the time. It proves just how barbaric and untrustworthy Santa Anna really was.Either way, Davy Crocket died a heroic death as evidenced by De la Pena's final words about the execution, "though tortured before they were killed, these unfortunates died without complaining and without humiliating themselves before their torturers."

It should be understood that many people in the New England and some eastern states were opposed to slavery and to any addition of states which tolerated it. England, too, used this as a pretext for aiding Mexico when her principal interest was in securing Texas cotton exports. Texans were regarded by an impressive number of observers as refugees from debts, as persons of callous nature, radical and even possibly criminal. "We trust for the future that 'Texian [sic] News' will not become as a great proverb . . . we cannot be sure even now whether Fannin's men have been butchered or not, whether Crockett is actually living, or dead with his 22 men. And more than all the rest, whether Santa Anna is really the awful raw-head and bloody-bones we have been made to believe, or the Texians [sic] themselves the veritable fire eaters they say they are."

An Interview with a slave

The two left about 4 a.m. Signal rockets lit up the scene as the fight began and the noise was tremendous. The fighting ended before dawn.

Santa Anna returned with Almonte, the latter complaining that another such a victory would ruin them.

Having seen former congressman Crockett before (evidently while working at a hotel in Washington) Ben was sent into the fort to identify Crockett's body. It was surrounded by about 16 Mexicans, his knife stuck in one.

Bodies removed for the fort were buried, not burned. (He may have seen only what happened with the Mexican dead.)

Mexican losses were 1,200.

Committed to death inside the Alamo were 189 known patriots who valued freedom more than life itself. Many, such as the 32 men and boys from Gonzales who made their way through the Mexican lines in answer to Travis's plea for reinforcements, were colonists. Theirs was a fight against Santa Anna's intolerable decrees. Others were volunteers such as David Crockett and his "Tennessee Boys" who owned nothing in Texas, and owed nothing to it. Theirs was a fight against tyranny wherever it might be. A handful were native Texans of Spanish and Mexican descent who suffered under the same injustices as the other colonists.

Crockett, using his rifle as a club, fell as the attackers, now joined by reinforcements who stormed the south wall, turned to the chapel. The Texans inside soon suffered the fate of their comrades. Bowie, his pistols emptied, his famous knife bloodied, and his body riddled, died on his cot.